Now that the dust is settling on the newly launched Google Music (if you don’t yet have it in your normal Google search results, you can use it here) that integrates LaLa and iLike/MySpace streaming music, all I can think of is this: What were Facebook and Ticketmaster thinking when they passed up the opportunity to acquire iLike?
MySpace is the big lottery winner here. They bought iLike for $20 million in August. What they got: a talented (literally) team that is starting to fill the executive ranks at MySpace, the biggest music application on Facebook, and, it turns out, a deal with Google that is now sending massive traffic flow directly to MySpace Music.
Our understanding from sources is that MySpace made an offer to iLike without knowing about the Google deal. Supposedly, since iLike was under NDA, all they knew was that iLike had a big partnership opportunity with some big company, nothing more. In hindsight the iLike deal looks smart even without Google. Add that in and it looks absolutely brilliant. I’m no fan of MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta, but I’ll give the man credit here. → Read More
Remember, remember, the 9th of November! Gadgets, technology, and beer. I see no reason why gadgets and tech should ever bring little cheer. Last year’s Columbus meetup was a huge success, and folks have been asking me when we’ll do it again. Well mark your calendars for Monday, November 9, and join us for a friendly evening of networking and libations at the Surly Girl Saloon, my favorite cowgirl/pirate themed bar! We’ll be in the party room in the back around 6:30 PM. The Surly Girl has a terrific menu, and a great selection of beers, so tastes of all types can be satisfied. John Biggs will be there, so you can ask him in person all those burning questions you have about Japanese sex jars! John will also have the Motorola Droid, the Twitter Peek, and a few other goodies to show off. Feel free to drop by if you’re on the web services side of things as well. → Read More
This is a guest post by Nabeel Hyatt, Founder and CEO of Conduit Labs, which is the creator of Loudcrowd and other social games that help you experience music with your friends. His personal blog can be found at nabeelhyatt.com and he can be followed on Twitter @nabeel.
Yesterday, Facebook announced they are going to drastically alter the way applications can message users once again, likely throwing a wrench into every app developers’ growth rate. Hints of the coming turmoil appeared last week when Facebook changed the way feeds work. This caused enough worry that apparently Mark Pincus, Founder/CEO of Zynga, canceled his appearance at Harvard Business School so he could sit with his team and figure out what the impact would be to the viral rates of their massive hits such as Farmville and Cafe World. That’s not surprising, since getting posts in the feed is critical to continued growth, but the myopic focus on the “viral rate” by some in the industry has created an over-dependence on perhaps the wrong number. → Read More
Perhaps you’ve been following the drama surrounding the Someecards iPhone app the past several weeks. If not, basically, Apple rejected the app on the grounds that it was making fun of public figures, like Roman Polanski and Hitler. Satire, it seems, it not okay in the App Store. And that’s fine except that potentially more offensive material like Asian T&A and upskirt apps, are apparently fine.
So Someecards decided to give in to Apple and remove any offending content. As such, their app was quickly approved (do what master says and get a cookie). But they’re not giving up the good fight. The guys behind Someecards realize the hypocrisy in Apple’s ways just as much as anyone. But they’ve decided to get their app out there the only way they can and move their fight over to Twitter. → Read More
Meet AIDA, the Affective Intelligent Driving Assistant. This is a prototype robot that utilizes sensors inside and outside the car to create “a platform comprising of a personal robot and an intelligent navigation system that aims to bring an innovative driving experience.” I don’t own an automobile, so practically every driving experience is innovative to me right now! Rather than traditional destination-oriented GPS navigation, AIDA posits “a navigation system that mimics the friendly expertise of a driving companion who is familiar with both the driver and the city.” Hopefully AIDA won’t complain about my driving the way all my friends do. Video and more inside! → Read More
In the cutthroat (?) world of wall outlet covers that feature built-in gadget holders, this $6 option might just be a contender. → Read More
Web measurement company comScore, has acquired Certifica, a similar web measurement company based in Latin America. ComScore says the acquisition will help buid its presence in Latin America. ComScore did not disclose the terms of the acquisition.
Based in Santiago, Chile, Certifica was founded in 2000 and publishes analytics and statistics on Internet usage in Latin America. The sites measured by Certifica will be available for inclusion (on an opt-in basis) in comScore’s Media Metrix 360 measurement product, which combines panel-based audience measurement data and Web site analytics data to provide a more comprehensive view of activity. → Read More
Previously available to law enforcement officials and government agents, you can now get in on the fun as well with the $200 Invisible Bluetooth Earpiece from BrickHouse Security. → Read More
Alright, everyone, settle down. I know the Google Maps Navigation stuff is pretty amazing, but let’s not write off the traditional GPS makers just yet. They’re not going anywhere for a while. Your parents and friends will see to that.
Hopefully the sudden market loss that companies like Garmin and TomTom saw yesterday will wake the companies up and see that they are doing it wrong. They are in the habit of producing 78 different versions of the same GPS. Each model steps you up $20 and adds another feature. It’s a ridiculous business plan and totally opposite what successful companies are doing.
But it’s true. Google dropped a bombshell on GPS makers yesterday with its free navigation tool that trumps almost anything currently available. The Android 2.0 app is about as robust as you can get thanks to the always connected Android OS and almighty Google. You can simply say “Where is the Best Buy in Flint, MI” and it will take you there. All this is free from the “do no evil” company, Google. → Read More
As smartphones get more powerful and mobile internet connections get faster, battery life seems to be getting worse and worse. While there are a truckload of technologies in the works to make things better in the coming months and years, the only real option for mobile junkies to stay juiced up is to carry an external battery pack. Thing is, every damn time we go to use our external battery packs, we run into one of two problems: we forgot to charge it, or we forgot the cable required to hook it up to our handset. The XP1 cable from XMultiple solves both of these problems with one absurdly obvious solution: the cable is the battery. They’ve got models for the iPhone, BlackBerry, and any phone that can be charged over Mini USB. → Read More
Look at the AP, trying to stir up controversy where none exists. I’m sure by now you’ve seen the leaked Modern Warfare 2 footage (the video is down right now) that shows a terrorist situation inside an airport. The AP (and HuffPo) is making a big deal out of the fact that you can shoot civilians inside the airport. And? Are they trying to go with that weak argument, “Oh, violent video games make people violent”? How can people still believe that? → Read More
That’s right, I’m going to be that guy since CrunchGear is maybe one notch above a random message board. As I suspected, Ron from <ron and Fez, is in Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony. (Apparently East Side Dave is in another upcoming Rockstar game. Let’s speculate which one!) His voice is in the game (continuing the trend of XM 202 guys being in the GTA games), and I’m going to spend my evening tonight trying to find it. The sad part is that I’m not even lying. I literally have nothing better to do with my time → Read More
Remember those Microsoft ads from a little over a year ago, the ones with Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates trying on shoes? Of course you do; it’s all the Internet talked about for days. I present to you this shocking photo: Seinfeld using a Mac! → Read More
This is just too cool not to post. Look at that little thing. It’s genius. It’s just a bit of walnut or oak, carved into a shape that will keep your ear buds under control. I’m amazed at the sheer beauty and simplicity of the little thing. I don’t even know what to call it. Calling it a wire management device takes away from the sex appeal, but the product name of Wrap Wrap is lame. Idk, but I want one. $17. [via Gadget Lab] → Read More
Well that didn’t take long. Over the past 24 hours, Twitter has been steadily rolling out its new Lists feature to a bunch of new users. Yesterday, about 25% of Twitter saw them, today, it’s much higher. Or it was. Shortly, Lists will temporarily go offline for everyone, product lead Nick Kallen has just tweeted out.
Don’t worry, the lists you just spent hours curating are not being deleted, but your access to them is being disabled for a bit. The reason is that there are already performance issues cropping up, so Twitter is taking “30 minutes or so” to investigate, as Kallen puts it. → Read More
Data Robotics, a company that creates automated data storage products, has raised $10 million in Series E funding led by Focus Ventures with Greylock Partners, New Enterprise Associates, RRE Ventures and Sutter Hill Ventures participating. Data Robotics previously raised $15 million in Series D funding from Greylock Partners, New Enterprise Associates, RRE Ventures and Sutter Hill Ventures.
The company’ Geoff Barrall says the new funding will be used to produce more inventory and will fuel additional sales and marketing efforts. Data Robotics, which launched in 2006, produces Drobo, a series of self-managing storage products. Drobo products are scalable and designed to meet the data storage needs of small to medium-sized businesses and includes Data Robotics’ BeyondRAID storage technology. Barrall says that the company is seeing strong growth in the enterprise space, with yearly revenue of around $30 million. → Read More
We at CrunchGear are rarely at the forefront of fashion. However, once I reviewed the Vibram Five Fingers I knew I was onto something. Thankfully, there are other people out there who don’t think my love for foot gloves is not strange or weird. In fact, people wear these crazy shoes everywhere they go!
Take a look at BirthdayShoes.com. Editor Justin Owings gets testimonials from all over the world including folks who have run marathons in these things and other folks who stand around in India wearing them. Heck, even Sergey Brin is down.
Video after the jump. → Read More
Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by Winston Bumpus, Director of Standards Architecture at VMware. In this piece, Winston describes how the lack of standards inhibits customers from taking advantage of the full potential of cloud computing because of concerns regarding lock-in and huge investments in proprietary tools, formats and infrastructure.
Cloud computing is here. The vision of flexible, self service IT infrastructure is now within our reach. The term of cloud computing may be a new term, but the concept has been around for a long time. So what is different now? I would say two things are really allowing this to be a reality: virtualization and industry interoperability standards.
Virtualization has been a real game changer for IT infrastructure. It has changed the processes and the cost points. This has happened with the isolation, consolidation and mobility that virtualization provides. Removing the rigid bonds between hardware and the application systems that run upon them has allowed for quicker and easier deployment and increased mobility of workloads. These capabilities have truly enabled this vision of cloud computing. → Read More
